Transparency

Here at the First Baptist Church of Sao Jose dos Campos we are in the middle of our annual worship conference. This year over 1,100 delegates from all over Brazil are participating. The energy is off the charts. If you have trouble with volume do not come to Brazil! Everything in Brazil is young and noisy. Your ears will never be bored.

Yesterday a young pastor gave a message that took the idea of pastoral transparency to a whole new level. Honestly, I have never heard anyone be so open about their battle with sin. I would tell you what he said, but I am not that transparent!

Seriously, as he spoke I think I understood more clearly than ever what Jesus meant when he told us to "cut off a hand" or "pluck out an eye." If we did, our weakness would be clear to us and everyone else who ever met us. As the young Brazilian pastor spoke I felt embarrassed for his weakness but at the same time I felt he had dealt with it just as Jesus had told him to.

He made his weakness obvious to all and he clearly stated that his weakness could never bring him any satisfaction.
One thing is for sure about our "flesh". It never gets better. If it did we would not need to "cut" and "pluck". We would "train" and "manage". The young Brazilian pastor had tried to "train" and "manage" his sin. He failed. It was time for the knife and the forceps. He used them!

I, too, have had to learn to see my flesh as unchangeable. It will never go away until I am in Jesus' presence and it will never satisfy me here or anywhere else. I, too, have had to "cut" and "pluck". Self help is no help.

Picture yourself standing in front of a table loaded with all your favorite desserts. You know you should not eat them but your hands keep picking up more and more. Now, picture yourself without hands. Everyone who saw you standing at the table without hands would know you had given up on self discipline and gone for a more deadly dealing with your lust for food. The young Brazilian pastor stood before us with no hands and no eyes. He was a totally transparent sinner but he was in the light.

When he gave the invitation for others to come forward and confess their weakness, the altar was full. Transparency was everywhere and in the spiritual realm their was a lot of "cutting" and "plucking" going on.

It was really wonderful to see how this man's weakness was used of God to bring strength to others. I guess we are always impressed when the weak are made strong by weakness. Kind of reminds me of the Cross!

Are your weaknesses transparent to you? That is the place to begin. You may never need to give a discourse on living without hands and eyes before a thousand people, but those closest to you need to know you have dealt with your weakness according to Jesus' method not man's methods. Your flesh will never change, but there is a new you that is born of God that is connected to the Vine and will produce much fruit as you allow the words of Jesus to do the cutting and the plucking they most certainly will do. "You are already clean by the Word I have spoken to you." Jesus John 15